ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
In recent times, I seem to have bad luck with clear cold-process LS.
First off, I don't mind if my LS is clear or turbid, especially for domestic use. But I am under the impression that I'm overlooking something important. I've run out of ideas what else to consider.
From the about one dozen of single-oil CPLS minibatches I've made over the last months, only two came out clear: coconut and castor. All others had some kind of residual turbidity, that wasn't (only) due to undissolved potassium stearate etc., but indeed some unreacted oily stuff that would float to the top when diluted to water-thin consistency.
With palm oil, mango butter, and maybe cottonseed and sesame oil, I was kind of expecting less than perfect clarity. But sunflower (both HO and HL)? Babaçu? Are you kidding? Most recently, the macadamia nut oil has stayed murky as well.
My procedure: Weigh 10 g of oils, and the appropriate amount of 25% KOH solution (weight rounded up to ensure 0% SF or less). Combine by vigorous shaking; for hard oils keep warm/molten. At thick trace, dilute with distilled water to 23% oil content, shake well, let react out over at least a week.
LS in the awkward quadrant “non-zappy” but “fails clarity test”.
Common culprits to exclude:
The final LS is perfectly fine, does its job, is not zappy, and cleans & bubbles well (when blended into a balanced recipe). It's a purely cosmetic issue, but I want to understand it.
Anyone else having a hard time making clear CPLS?
First off, I don't mind if my LS is clear or turbid, especially for domestic use. But I am under the impression that I'm overlooking something important. I've run out of ideas what else to consider.
From the about one dozen of single-oil CPLS minibatches I've made over the last months, only two came out clear: coconut and castor. All others had some kind of residual turbidity, that wasn't (only) due to undissolved potassium stearate etc., but indeed some unreacted oily stuff that would float to the top when diluted to water-thin consistency.
With palm oil, mango butter, and maybe cottonseed and sesame oil, I was kind of expecting less than perfect clarity. But sunflower (both HO and HL)? Babaçu? Are you kidding? Most recently, the macadamia nut oil has stayed murky as well.
My procedure: Weigh 10 g of oils, and the appropriate amount of 25% KOH solution (weight rounded up to ensure 0% SF or less). Combine by vigorous shaking; for hard oils keep warm/molten. At thick trace, dilute with distilled water to 23% oil content, shake well, let react out over at least a week.
LS in the awkward quadrant “non-zappy” but “fails clarity test”.
Common culprits to exclude:
- Lye purity. Just titrated yesterday, and found even slightly higher (85.7%) than specified on the package (85%), so I've rather overestimated SF.
- (Accidental) superfat. Precision limitations due to the small batch size aside, I'm aiming for 0% SF, and errors should be within few % SF. But the objection of excessive superfat still holds. That's why with the babaçu, I had overdone things, and increased lye to a whopping -18% SF (strong zap), but still some unsaponifiable lipid remains floating around.
- (Missing) heat. Test wise, I've heated the macadamia CPLS to 70°C over a few hours (“force gel” in bar soap speak) – soap stayed unimpressed.
- Air bubbles. Yes, I do have a few air bubbles in the paste. But the turbidity remains when I dilute the paste to water-thin.
- The PP plastic test tubes I've used were thoroughly cleaned. No other tools were in contact with the soap batter.
- Can I trust my regular (0.1 g) scale? It is high-quality, but old (older than me, lol). Maybe I'm be too confident into its precision and stability? I do have a 1 mg scale at reach, and will test with it how reliable the normal scale really is.
- Does CPLS scale worse than HPLS or CP bar soap? Is there something about the saponification that needs some magic minimum amount of soap batter inertia to be present for a successful and complete reaction?
- Am I in bad luck and/or victim of a world conspiracy to deliver to me only oils with an above-average content of unsaponifiables and/or contaminations?
The final LS is perfectly fine, does its job, is not zappy, and cleans & bubbles well (when blended into a balanced recipe). It's a purely cosmetic issue, but I want to understand it.
Anyone else having a hard time making clear CPLS?
Maybe this will help you figure it out:
Is “00-Raps” the generic or the brand name?
jelly) and must be further diluted to be usable. The hot&clear one, however, is at thick 
consistency and wouldn't need much extra water to reach the “perfect” viscosity.
